Promise of rain has turned into cloud and the lightest of drizzle which has barely registered in the rain gauge. But ideal weather for more road-side weeding, 5 ks from here, of the jump weed. I spent 4 hours yesterday, enjoyed the close observation at soil level and the sprouting of camphor seedlings, the dominant, with a sparse emerging of rain-forest seedlings. Human’s trash amongst it all including glass bottles, plastic, components’ from computers, road authority reflectors ect.

News dominated by the gathering in Brisbane of the G20 this week-end. The forecast ( Brisbane, 170 ks North of Byron) says the temperature is to reach the high 30s. Australia scrambling at the Chinese/American announcement that they are going to start to take CO2 emissions seriously. Chinese cities, where most of our consumer goods are made, are almost unliveable for many of their citizens.

More hot air to come so I expect Brisbane’s temperature to rise even higher.
Couple of news items that took my interest.

A Dutch Certified Organic farmer, Dr Arjen de Vos, is growing potatoes using diluted sea water. His effort won a prestigious award for his salt tolerant bumper crop of potatoes. His land, surrounded by an encroaching ocean coupled with salt marshes which seep salt water into the dykes, drains and canals. Inspired by the salt tolerant sea cabbage, another farmer, Marc van Rijsselberghe set up a Salt farm where de Vos studied the growing of non GM or laboratory based experiments, using the real life experience of another elderly farmer who had a geekish knowledge of hundreds of different potato varieties. With 50% of agricultural land threatened by salt water and most of the human concentration going towards how to stop it encroaching further, this experiment shows us that adaptation is the only way forward as there are even more humans to feed. De Vos’s potato crop won first prize in a salt tolerant US potato award.

Then there is the news of Viktor Orban, the leader of the all powerful Hungarian government. 452 hectares of rich certified organic soil, south-west from Budapest, producing a wide range of vegetables and fruit and leased from the Hungarian state for 30 years, has been turned into a desolated wilderness after slashing then being sprayed with glyphosate. With the exception of 9 hectares, the land has been turned over to friendly to Orban, oligarchs and business men. Depressing…..

But then we have a senator here in our senate whose idea of farming is to spray your field with glyphosate before you plant your seed. Ahem and we elect these fools.

The 3 wood stove carpet snakes have moved on with the last one (the one who swallowed the cloth in the hen’s nest) shed its skin on Monday. 2 are living in the garden.